“Mr. Brodie has provided valuable service in the past. I look forward to our continued relationship, as well as with you.”
That particular aspect I had not yet shared with Brodie.
“The matter he needed to attend to is in Leeds,” Sir Avery then provided. “Something most important to him. As for yourself, I am most pleased that you escaped mostly unharmed.” He paused before continuing. “We have a lead in the counterfeiting case. It seems that we will be able to conclude that shortly.” He looked at me.
“Will you be taking up your writing next? A new novel perhaps? Or will you be returning to the Strand with Brodie? Most unconventional for a lady of your position,” he added.
“As I said—I am very pleased that you survived the ordeal. And as for Brodie...”
Unless I was mistaken, he waited to make certain he had my full attention.
“The charges against him have been stayed and will be removed, of course. He is far too valuable to the Agency to lose.”
Brodie had warned me before about Sir Avery, what was said when they had met in the past, and what was clearly left unspoken.
“Of course, you told him about our arrangement when I will have the need to call on your particular talents.”
That headache had returned and throbbed at the back of my head.
I thanked him for his concerns then left with a new understanding of Brodie’s reservations about the man.
Twenty-Four
Time away from the city…
It was Munro who provided the answer to my question regarding where Brodie had gone when I arrived at Sussex Square to assure my great-aunt, and Lily of course, that I was quite all right.
My aunt had merely inspected me, then commented, “I have some cosmetics that will cover that, left by Templeton after a performance. After all I cannot go about the city in the motor carriage appearing like an old woman. One never knows whom one might encounter, perhaps a handsome man.
“It does cover quite nicely,” she had continued. “Wrinkles in my case, and makes one feel quite lovely. By the way, I have not seen Mr. Brodie of late.”
A hint for information, if ever there was one, which I avoided answering.
I could only imagine the benefit of the cosmetics, still I would most definitely sample some. The nasty bruise above my lip was the worst of it, not that I was usually concerned about such things. And it did bring startled looks from the servants. I could only imagine the comments others might offer.
“Crivvens!” Lily had exclaimed when she saw me. “I hope ye gave as good as ye got.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. However, very near unconscious at the time, the best I was able to do was to kick out at the man I now knew as Jacob Howell, in a particularly vulnerable location when I had come to enough in the hold of the ship. That was when he had struck me across the face.
After all was said and done, what was in store for him now was far better than any blow I could have struck, even though it would have been most satisfying at the time.
Munro had just returned from business across the city. I found him at his office near the kitchens.
“Leeds. Brimley’s son lives there with his family,” he informed me when I asked if he knew where Brodie had gone.
A safe place, where Brodie had taken Rory, after his mother was killed.
I had not met the boy, of course, but I felt that instinctive tightness around my heart for what he had gone through, the loss of his mother, the horror he must have experienced the night she was murdered, not knowing what would happen to him. And there was the very real possibility that he might have been killed as well.
As I knew only too well, there were things that stayed with a person, no matter the passing of years, things that were never forgotten, but simply dealt with as best one could.
Munro waited, as if there was something more, then, “He should be back tomorrow.”
I stayed the rest of the day, then night at Sussex Square, but couldn’t help but think of Brodie, and how difficult it undoubtedly was to go to Leeds and explain to Rory Sutton that the man who had killed his mother had been found, and he no longer had to be afraid.
I listened to Lily’s description of her latest studies, though not without the occasional roll of her eyes.
“Just get through your lessons,” I encouraged her, what had worked for me very near her age. “Then you can choose whatever you would like to pursue next, perhaps travel...”
